No, We Cannot Deport an American Bishop for Her Sermon

​King Henry II, after having his royal prerogatives blocked time and again by the Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas à Becket, blurted out “will no one rid me of this troublesome priest?”
 
Some Republicans felt the same when President Trump and his family attended an Episcopal service the other day. The president was subjected to a sermon by Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde of Washington, D.C., who appealed to the new president to “have mercy on the people who are scared now,” including immigrants, refugees, and sexual minorities.
 
President Trump himself took it all in stride (and with a comeback tweet or two). This was all in keeping for a president who had just decisively defended free speech in his inaugural address and then bolstered it hours later with an executive order. But at least one prominent critic of Bishop Budde had a different response. He asked that the bishop be put on the “deportation list.”
 
It would be right and fair to come back at the bishop with some substantive riposte, as the president did. But the Right Rev. Budde, as an American citizen born in New Jersey, cannot – and must not – ever be considered for deportation because of how she chooses to exercise her First Amendment rights. For an American citizen, a threat of deportation is never a good joke.
 
Critics should keep in mind that overreaction tends to valorize rather than intimidate. After King Henry’s call, several followers overreacted to the king’s frustration by drawing their swords and killing Archbishop Becket at the altar.
 
This, of course, led to Becket becoming a saint.

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